People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 282 Wang Anshi’s Alertness

The next day, early in the morning.

Commander Yao Bin was still receiving other envoys.

However, in the morning, more than ten soldiers from the Imperial City Division were transferred from Daming Mansion for Wang Anshi's dispatch.

Wang Anshi thanked Yao Bin and officially started the day's work.

The entire cavalry battalion should be full of four hundred people, and the corresponding number of horses should also be four hundred.

He inspected the stables. There were only more than thirty thin or old horses in the stables.

This is actually not normal either.

Although the number of horses in the Song Dynasty was small, there were more than 200,000 registered cavalry, and tens of thousands of war horses were imported from Qingtang every year. It could not be just that.

But Wang Anshi just recorded all these things and asked again when the time comes.

The number of soldiers registered was 384, so Wang Anshi asked the soldiers to come over one by one to accept his questioning.

Basically, each soldier was given 10-20 minutes, and the problem was still the same.

It was normal at the beginning, and the lower-level soldiers were the targets of exploitation, but when they reached the position of squad leader, there was always something to be fished out of.

Therefore, as a group with vested interests, they will definitely cooperate with their superiors' requirements and strictly order the top soldiers under their command to speak the same tone.

After eating lunch brought in by the guards from outside at noon and continuing to work in the afternoon, things started to go wrong.

In the commander's barracks, Wang Anshi looked at the "strong man" in front of him and said to Wang Tengyun in a dumbfounded voice: "They think I am a fool."

The "strong man" standing in front of them was indeed relatively tall, but he had no facial hair, a burly body, and his words were rough and rugged, but his voice was female, and he was obviously pretending to be a strong female man.

Wang Tengyun also lowered his head and glanced at the record of "broad-minded and strong" on the military register. He raised his head and said with a stern expression: "Are you going to recruit yourself or will I serve you with severe punishment?"

This frightened the female man opposite and said quickly: "I don't know anything. I am a butcher in the town and I have a lot of strength. Liu Sanzhi said he wanted me to come to the camp and serve as a soldier for a few days. I have money three times."

During the Northern Song Dynasty, "an" appeared in Hebei and Henan areas and became a dialect. This is mostly recorded in "Liu Zhiyuan Zhugong Diao" and "Xixiang Zhugong Diao" in the Song and Jin Dynasties.

Hearing that although the other party was tall and strong, he was so frightened that his branches were trembling, Wang Anshi had no choice but to say silently: "Okay, I won't torture you."

After that, he ordered his subordinates: "Call Liu Sanzhi in."

"Your Majesty."

After a while, Liu Sanzhi came in. When he saw the secret, his face turned pale, and Nuonuo stood there without daring to speak.

Wang Anshi said: "I have said many times that this time the court is only temporarily counting the number of people in the army. It will not do anything to you. Let's be honest about the specific number of vacancies. If you explain clearly to yourself, then nothing will happen. If If this officer finds out, then"

Liu Sanzhi had no choice but to cry and said: "We have recruited all the villains. There should be 384 people in this camp, but in fact there are only 126."

"What about the horse?"

"horse"

"Did your commander sell it?"

"Forehead"

"Have you divided some of the money among you?"

Wang Anshi is good at teaching.

Liu Sanzhi laughed sarcastically and did not dare to answer.

"All right."

Wang Anshi shook his head and motioned for them to go out.

After everyone left, Wang Tengyun said unhappily: "These cunning thieves are still trying to cover up."

"Don't make it difficult for the soldiers at the bottom, they are also victims."

Wang Anshi advised: "The Zhiyuan said that if there is a way, they don't want to do this."

The military camp is like this, with layers of oppression. If those above do bad things, those below may take the blame, so everyone keeps their secrets secret and dare not talk nonsense.

It was impossible for Wang Anshi to directly oppose them when he first arrived, so he could only find ways to appease them and get close to them first.

As long as you gain their trust and ask questions step by step, you will naturally be able to find out the whole story.

The next few days.

Wang Anshi continued to talk and communicate with the soldiers in the camp.

Some corruption cases have been temporarily uncovered, such as the reselling of military equipment and horses.

He did not punish the soldiers, but just comforted everyone, saying that the court would naturally have public opinion and would not punish them unless they personally participated in the crime.

Wang Tengyun was responsible for scaring the soldiers, saying that if they concealed the truth, the court would imprison them, punish them, or even behead them.

For a time, in this situation where one was pretending to be a red face and the other was pretending to be a white face, many soldiers were so frightened that they confessed everything they knew.

In fact, there are still some commonplace issues, such as short quotas, reselling of arms, military discipline, etc. Not to mention the court, even the people outside the town know about it. Now the court only plans to record it first and carry out large-scale rectification.

On this day, at night, Wang Anshi was writing furiously in the barracks, writing down the findings into an official document and preparing to hand it in.

At this moment, the guards from outside came to report that there was a casual agent looking for him.

Wang Anshi was not surprised. After thinking about it, he originally planned to call Wang Tengyun, because the left-behind censors in various places had to accompany them to supervise each other. However, considering that Wang Tengyun had already gone to bed, he did not interrupt and wanted to see the situation first.

"Your Majesty!"

The casual guy came in with a worried look on his face.

Wang Anshi smiled and said: "What's wrong? Come to me in the middle of the night."

Sanzui sighed: "The villain knows that the envoy is a good person, and also knows that the court will not do anything to us, so the villain came to inform the envoy."

"You say it."

Wang Anshi said.

These days, he has conveyed the imperial court's wishes.

Since soldiers were also victims of empty pay, and it was Zhao Kuangyin who allowed those generals and nobles to eat empty pay, the court could forget about it.

But it's not necessarily true if other crimes are involved. According to Wang Anshi's investigation in the past few days, there are indeed some crimes in the camp.

But basically it was all done by the battalion commander and the other noble sons of the generals, and had nothing to do with the lower-level soldiers.

After all, they didn't have the power or energy to sell the military's horses and ordnance, but they were instructed by their superiors to resell them, and even shared some of the stolen money.

Wang Anshi also comforted them, saying that the court might hold them accountable, but they were instructed by their superiors and the blame did not lie with them, so they were asked to relax and explain clearly what they needed to explain.

It is precisely in this way that Wang Anshi made these low-level soldiers feel at ease with his relatively tolerant attitude, and their resistance was much less.

The monk then said: "Your Majesty, in fact, you know all the bad things in this camp. The money and things were taken from the top, and the pay was often withheld. The brothers below also have grievances, and there are many The deserters, the court’s punishment this time should also be punished to them.”

"Ah."

Seeing that the other party was being honest, Wang Anshi asked the guards to call Wang Tengyun and responded: "Yes, the court may indeed punish them, it depends on how many crimes they committed."

Sanzhi said: "The commander of our battalion has always been the Yang family. The villain has also realized that the commander is here to make decisions for us, so he has the courage to risk his life and tell everything they have done over the years. speak out."

"very good."

Wang Anshi said happily: "Bring him a chair and talk slowly."

"Thank you, envoy."

The Xianzhi took the chair and sat down.

Wang Tengyun came after a while, and the two of them were in the room, protected by several guards, taking out paper and pen and started recording.

The imperial court transferred all officers above the battalion level this time, naturally hoping to see this result.

General Men Xungui himself is not very capable of controlling the lower-level soldiers, so it is impossible to launch a mutiny. Killing the court angels will lead to death, and no one will follow them.

At the beginning, no one dared to say anything. They just took the instructions and threats from their superiors before leaving, and some small team leaders also participated.

However, there are always people who are unwilling to give in and are willing to say something.

The same is true for this casual value. Because he had a military leader who treated him well before and was beaten to death, so he had the courage to come and report him.

It turns out that besides taking short quotas, there are other things going on in this camp.

Like leftovers. The remaining member system was created by Zhao Kuangyin.

Soldiers who reach the age of sixty or become disabled are not decommissioned, but transferred to the remaining member status.

The salary is half of what it was before, but if you die in the military or request to be discharged, the court will give you a burial or settlement allowance.

This money is very generous, which is about two years of normal salary and enough food to support the family for a year. After returning to his hometown, he will be exempted from taxes and labor, and the government will also give him an ox.

But it was so rich that some people coveted it. Since the money was distributed by the Sanyamen, those people took advantage of this opportunity to directly give the money to Tan Mo.

If anyone asks for it, they will beat them. What power can the old soldiers at the bottom have? There is no way to appeal, so most of them can only swallow their anger and return home in tears.

There was an old soldier who had taken care of him for many years. He was so angry that he went to his superiors to argue with him, so he was beaten to death, and they also made extra money for burial expenses. This prompted this casual person to take the risk to expose the matter and expose the matter.

Wang Anshi and Wang Tengyun were very happy and recorded everything, including how these people sold prohibited items, resold equipment in the army, beat people to death, bullied soldiers, left over soldiers, lost military status, engaged in gambling, etc. A series of illegal acts.

In the final analysis, the soldiers at the bottom are not of the same mind as them. Now that I have such an opportunity, I will naturally not let it go.

Soon it was late at night, while the two were still recording.

Suddenly there was a shout from outside: "The water has escaped!"

In an instant, the barracks seemed to be boiling, and there were noisy sounds everywhere, including people putting out fires, people calling people, and various crackling and crashing sounds.

Wang Anshi was shocked and said: "Why did it suddenly catch on fire?"

The Xianzhi said: "Fires are common. It might be in the cooking room. A candle was knocked over or something like that. It shouldn't be a big deal."

"Go out and have a look."

Wang Tengyun suggested.

"Ah."

At that moment, Wang Anshi and everyone left the barracks.

After coming out of the barracks, you can see that the feed room where horse feed is stored in the distance is indeed on fire.

Fires in the feed room of the cavalry regiment were also common. When they ran out of money, they would set a fire, lie and claim that the feed for the horses was burned, and then ask the court for money.

However, after all, there is a lot of fodder in the feed room, and it is normal for it to catch fire occasionally, so everyone is used to it.

Soldiers came out of the camp to scoop out water and put out the fire.

Seeing this, Wang Anshi planned to go there, but at this time, another salesman he saw during the day was sweating profusely and nervously running over to report: "Your Majesty, the material room is on fire."

"I saw it, go take a look."

"The fire is dangerous. Please stay here. We can put it out soon."

Xancui quickly advised.

"That"

Wang Anshi was hesitating.

Suddenly, the officer pointed to the commander's barracks behind him and said, "Why is there a fire here too?"

Everyone looked back and saw that the commander's backyard was also in flames.

The fire was actually quite fierce.

Seeing this situation, Wang Tengyun said quickly: "Quick, go put out the fire."

The surrounding guards and the Imperial City Division soldiers sent by Yao Bin to assist them in handling the case were planning to rush to the barracks in a swarm.

In the flash of lightning, Wang Anshi suddenly noticed something was wrong and shouted: "Wait a minute!"

Everyone stopped and looked at him.

Wang Anshi looked at the person running over, his eyes narrowed, this person was too suspicious, so he shouted sternly: "Take him down!"

Everyone was stunned. Sanzhi looked horrified at first, but seemed to have remembered something. Sweat was pouring from his forehead. Then he gritted his teeth, took out a horn knife from his waist, and stabbed Wang Anshi fiercely.

Fortunately, the guard next to him did not leave. Immediately, someone cut off the arm that was stabbing Wang Anshi with a knife, and another person stabbed him to death.

"How to kill?"

Wang Anshi frowned.

The guard next to him said helplessly: "There is nothing I can do about my humble position. I am afraid of hurting the envoy."

It was really not his responsibility to kill people and silence them. After all, the thousands of people sent to protect the envoys were all reliable elites selected from the Bianliang Forbidden Army.

The situation was urgent and there was nothing they could do.

Wang Anshi was thinking about it when he suddenly caught a glimpse of several other people in soldier uniforms sneaking out of the camp in the darkness from the corner of his eye, and shouted: "Catch those people."

Immediately, everyone rushed over. When those few people saw that the matter was exposed, they had no choice but to run away, but they were unable to hold back the elite soldiers and were quickly overtaken.

After a fight between the two sides, two people were killed on the spot and three others were captured.

Wang Anshi immediately arranged separate interrogations.

By the next day, the matter had been investigated clearly.

These five people are the dead soldiers sent by the Yang family.

The noble disciples do not rely on themselves to dominate the camp, but they have raised a group of loyal thugs.

The sources of these people are often their close subordinates in the camp, who do dirty work for them such as reselling arms, selling prohibited items, and even killing people.

In the Song Dynasty, this was a relatively common situation. Historical records record that when Xia Song was the commander-in-chief, he sent his soldiers to the border to sell goods and make huge profits. Sun Miao also mobilized the army to work as his cargo boy.

However, most of the goods were legal, so most of the army's generals, including Xia Song, were not implicated. Except for those who sell prohibited items, they are often tacitly recognized by the court.

After all, the law only prohibits officials from doing business themselves, and does not prohibit officials from sending their soldiers to do business. Anything can be done without prohibition by law. Even Zhao Jun couldn't make a fuss about this when he wanted to deal with Xia Song.

But it's one thing to let your soldiers do serious business, and it's another thing to do illegal things.

Killings, disposing of corpses, reselling ordnance, organizing gambling in military camps, taking shortfalls, etc. are basically all done by the cronies of these superior officers.

This time too.

They were sent to attack Wang Anshi.

Since Wang Anshi was escorted by local officials and the Imperial City Department along the way, they had no chance to take action.

Entering the military camp, it was impossible for them to mobilize soldiers to attack the imperial envoy.

Although the soldiers were afraid of telling what they had done because of their power, they were not fools either.

Hiding it could only be regarded as being forced, but if they attacked the imperial envoy, it would be a capital crime of genocide, so naturally no one would follow them.

However, they took advantage of the fact that they still had one or two cronies in the army and used them to be familiar with the situation in the military camp. They set fire to create chaos first and asked the soldiers to go to the far-away material room to put out the fire.

When the cronies came over to report, they would set a fire in the backyard to attract the imperial envoys and the guards of the Imperial City Department.

At this time, there were only two or three people around the imperial envoy at most. They ran out of the backyard, met up with the close aide, pretended to be soldiers from the camp and came over, suddenly attacked the imperial envoy, killed him and ran away.

As for the confidant, there is a high probability that he will be silenced. But there was nothing he could do. His family members were all under control. Even if he knew it was a capital crime, he could only bite the bullet and go ahead.

"What a ruthless strategy!"

The next day, Wang Tengyun, who had not slept all night, told Wang Anshi the results of the interrogation with panda eyes, sighing: "If it hadn't been for the cleverness of my dear brother Jiefu, I'm afraid we would both have been killed by the sword!"

"They dare to attack the envoys, they are so brave."

Wang Anshi looked solemn, looked at the sky outside the door and said: "This matter must be reported to the Imperial Academy as soon as possible. I am worried that other envoys will also be attacked."

"Well, report back immediately!"

Wang Tengyun nodded.

present.

Both of them immediately wrote official documents, stamped their seals, sent urgent documents, and went through the channels of Daming Palace Imperial City Department and Yushi Department.

Let the officials from the two departments who specialize in delivering official documents switch horses without changing people, and rush them back to Bianliang for 800 miles!

(End of this chapter)